Seven years since Kathleen Ross "graduated"

Today will be seven years since my wife Kathleen Ross of blessed memory passed away in the City of Hope, after a year-long cancer journey. 

This is not the journey we had planned. In the summer of 2008, we intended to begin a sabbatical year, to spend nine months at Pendle Hill, a Quaker Retreat Center near Philadelphia, where we met as students in 1989. I  planned to write a biography of Howard and Anna Brinton, notable Quaker teachers and writers who helped nurture Pendle Hill as its directors. Kathleen planned to study spiritual direction.

We sold our home, the Bishop assigned a new pastor to Kathleen's congregation in Torrance, and I resigned after 12 years as editor of the Quaker magazine "Friends Bulletin". We packed a POD with all our unneeded belongings and loaded up our camping gear to take a three month journey across the country to visit national and state parks, family and friends, on our way to Pendle Hill.

Our actual journey took a dramatic sharp turn when on the day the sabbatical began, Kathleen underwent a needle biopsy which revealed that she had a  mass in the chest wall caused by lymphoma.

We were homeless when we received this alarming news, and were incredibly grateful when Quaker friends offered us lodging in their homes until we could settle into an apartment in Santa Monica near the Quaker meeting.

For the next ten months we devoted ourselves to healing and to advocating health care reform so that all Americans could have the quality of affordable health care that we enjoyed. We blogged about our cancer journey at caringbridge.org and I hope someday to write about our experiences (I tentatively titled this project "Love Never Dies"). This blog was an outgrowth of the blog we began during this period. 

Today I want to thank God for Kathleen, and also for all those who supported us during this difficult period: my Quaker meeting, our interfaith friends, and our extended family. I am consoled by the words of Scripture that Kathleen wanted me to remember: "I am convinced that neither life nor death, nor powers nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights nor depths nor any created thing, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus."

I believe these words, I feel them in my bones, and I know them to be true from many challenging experiences, yet Kathleen's death was the most painful moment of my life.  Her death broke open my heart and it has never completely healed. I still grieve. I still mourn her loss. And yet I am grateful for what this loss taught me. Her death has helped me to become more human, more fully alive, just as the death of Jesus enabled his disciples to become more Christ-like, more in touch with their Inward Teacher, the Holy Spirit. 

Losing Kathleen has given me an opportunity to grow in new ways. After her death, I assumed a pastoral role in my Meeting. People who had problems or had suffered losses sought me out because they need I could empathize. I became a better listener. Several years ago I enrolled in the Stillpoint Spiritual Direction program. Becoming a spiritual director was something that Kathleen wanted to become just before she passed. I felt led to continue the work that she never had a chance to finish.

What does it mean to be a spiritual director? It means to listen from the heart to another human being and to help them connect with what is most alive for them. This is what my spiritual director does for me, and what I would like to do that for others. I am not there yet, but this is one of my growing edges.

Two years after Kathleen's death, I met Jill Shook, another wonderful Christian woman who has transformed my life. I feel as if I am re-born, and have been given a second chance at life and love.  I am deeply grateful to God for Jill, and for those who continue to walk with me in my journey of faith.

 A week ago, I had the joy of giving a presentation at Santa Monica Friends Meeting, and my dear friend Stan Searl wrote this "Prayer for Healing." What a blessing it is to have friends as we journey together along life's winding and often rocky road, accompanied by a Guide who loves us beyond measure.

A note on these poems. When Kathleen had her stem cell transplant, it was around the time of my birthday, so I bought her a birthday balloon, since her transplant was a kind of re-birthday (or so we hoped). During my last visit to her, I released this balloon and it soared towards the San Gabriel mountains near the hospital where she was in ICU.

During Kathleen's memorial service I bought another balloon, this one with the words "Congrats on your Graduation." Debbie, a member of our Quaker meeting who is very outspoken, said: "When I saw that balloon, I was puzzled and wondered why Anthony bought it and then I realized, Kathleen has graduated." Indeed Kathleen has graduated--she has earned her advanced degree by learning how to live like a Christian, love like a Christian, and face life-threatening illness and death like a Christian, with grace and love. Now she is reunited with the One who both teaches and embodies perfect love. Rest in joy, dear heart!

Prayer for Healing

Stanford J. Searl, Jr.

“On the day you had your transplant
I brought you a balloon ….”

 (Anthony Manousos, “From Your Window in ICU”).

We visited her in the Kaiser on Cadillac,

singing together and praying for recovery

feeling Methodist hymns rise up.

These hymns sounded out into the hospital room,

a prayer seeping into the Divine

landscape of her heart.

Quakers surrounded her bedside

to sing breathe on us breath of God,

praying for our breathing to be filled by His breath.

In the midst of this dying,

we fell in love again with this minister

who reminded us how it felt

to be hopelessly in thrall with the savior of all

(even with cancerous lungs)

to celebrate the power of Christ within.

From your window in ICU

(for kathleen by anthony)

From your window in ICU

you could see only the dry river bed

but you joyfully imagined

where it led towards the blue mountains

and the rocky paths where you loved to walk

amidst the pale green chaparral

What a celebration it was

when those who were reborn

as stem cell survivors gathered

joyously at the City of Hope

Thousands of them, with their loved ones

caregivers, doctors, nurses--some of them dancing

some simply standing up or sitting down

miraculously, self-consciously alive

with buttons proclaiming their age:

one year, five years, twenty years old.

My button said, “One day….”

On the day you had your transplant

I brought you a balloon

to celebrate our re-birthday

our new life about to begin

And now in my mind I release that balloon

once again

and let it float away

dancing in the air with a kind of wild joy

towards those blue mountains

where you yearned to go

Kathleen with her stem cell balloon

At a "Wellness Party" with Friends and family

Kathleen with her beloved brother Jim, sister-in-law Anne and nephew Edward

With Mei Kee, the Chinese "daughter" we informally adopted
when she lived with us in Whittier

With Frank Strickland of Del Rosa UMC, a church we served and loved.
Frank was a lover of roses as well as of Jesus. I am carrying an urn
with Kathleen's ashes.

Surmounting the limits of Quakerism: A reflection on the Friends World Committee for Consultation

I am thrilled that the Board of Western Friend will be coming to Orange Grove Meeting this weekend,  even though I am a little overwhelmed by the prospect of coordinating arrangements for them.  Nonetheless, I am glad that I took on this responsibility. I love this magazine.  For eleven years I was its editor when it was still called Friend Bulletin, the name that Anna Brinton bestowed on it in 1929. Editing this magazine was a life-changing experience for me and I hope for many readers. I came to know Friends from the three Western Yearly Meeting--Pacific, North Pacific and Intermountain--from states including Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. I attended over 33 Yearly Meeting sessions (my favorite location was Ghost Ranch in New Mexico) and had the joy of seeking out the most interesting and passionate Friends and convincing them to write articles. I also had the opportunity to edit three timely books: Western Quaker Reader, Compassionate Listening and Other Writings by Gene Hoffman, and EarthLight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age.

Western Friend continues to publish relevant books, most recently Eastern Light by Steve Smith, an outstanding Quaker philosophy professor and former clerk of our Yearly Meeting. I am eager to read Steve's book, which is intriguingly described as follows:

This spiritual autobiography integrates perspectives of early Quakers, Zen Buddhists, and contemporary Christian thinkers. Smith draws from these sources as he tells a personal tale of his Quaker childhood, his years of spiritual crisis, and his ultimate return to Quakerism by way of Zen Buddhism. Along the way, Smith explores and explains the Quaker peace testimony and liberal Quaker views of gender, power, education, and care for the natural world."

You can find out more at  https://westernfriend.org/

Today Western Friend is in the capable hands of Mary Klein, a Friend from Palo Alto Meeting who shares my concern for social justice and spirituality. This is the unabridged version of the article that I wrote for the most recent issue of Western Friend:

When I asked Mary Klein if I could write an article about the Friends World Committee on

Consultation, she suggested that I write about it for the issue on “Limits,” with April 1 as the deadline. My initial response was: “Is she kidding?” I was grateful for her offer, but something in me bristles at the word “limits.”

As I reflected and prayed about this topic, however, I realized that some limits are Spirit-led and necessary for our spiritual health and social well-being. Deadlines, for example, are limits that magazines set to stay in business, as I learned when I was editor of this magazine.

At a deeper level, there are divinely inspired or mandated limits, such as the idea of Sabbath. Sabbath sets a limit on our human tendency to workaholism, and also on the tendency of employers to impose limitless work on their employees.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a leading interfaith peace and justice activist, explores both the inner and outer dimensions of Sabbath in his compelling book Journeys of Freedom: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness Across Millennia (2011). He notes that Pharaoh made the Hebrews work seven days a week, well beyond their limits; and when they were finally freed from bondage, God gave this community of newly freed slaves a day off. This day was called Sabbath and was considered holy, part of the very fabric of the universe (even God rested on the seventh day of Creation!). Sabbath also has an inward dimension: it is a day in which we are commanded to refrain from work so we can enjoy our families and commune with God. How liberating, and yet how hard for those of us who can’t say ‘no’ to requests to do good but sometimes overwhelming committee work!

Sabbath also imposed limits on debt and land use. Every seven years there was a Shabbaton, a Sabbath year, in which the land was to rest and debts forgiven. Every seven times seven years, there was an even bigger Sabbath, called Jubilee, in which land was to be re-distributed so that the poor who lost their land would regain it. The ultimate goal of Jubilee, and thus of the Jewish people, was to end poverty. “There should be no poor among you, for the LORD your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession” (Deuteronomy 15:5). To fulfill this divine mandate, Jesus began his prophetic ministry by saying: “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor…. And the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18). Scholars agree that the “acceptable year of the year” meant Jubilee. In other words, Jesus’s mission was to bring about Jubilee—the redistribution of land and wealth—and that’s why his followers sold their property and shared their wealth “so there was no poverty among them” (Act 4:34-35). The Bible also makes it clear that there are limits imposed by God on the accumulation of wealth, with the ultimate goal being social and economic equality. Sounding like a socialist, Paul say, “At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality” (see 2 Corinthians 8:14).

Limits are also necessary in our personal and lives. Those in the counseling professions call them “boundaries.” To be psychologically healthy, we need to establish limits or boundaries so we feel safe and secure. We also set limits on ourselves when we assume, or discover, our identity. For example, when I became a Quaker, I realized that some behavior was “un-Quakerly” (like sarcasm and violent speech); and I needed to refrain from doing and saying certain things. Moral and ethical codes require setting limits on our behavior.

Some limits stand in the way of our spiritual and psychological growth, however. For example, when we try to define God, or when we exclude people based on our personal prejudices or ideological assumptions, we are setting limits that aren’t divinely sanctioned.

Quakerism began as a movement that tried to dispense as much as possible with man-made limits, such as rituals and dogmas.  Because Quakerism aspired to be a Spirit-led religion, it was hard to define and therefore was suspect to many Christians. Spirit is mysterious, unpredictable, and beyond our control. Unlike rules and “guidelines,” Spirit cannot be defined, it can only be experienced, like a breeze blowing through a room.

As Quakerism evolved, especially in the United States, this lack of clearly defined doctrines began to trouble some Friends. If we don’t have dogmas, required beliefs that define who were are, are we really Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian, or a Quaker? What defines the boundaries of our faith?

Power struggles occurred over who could set the boundaries of Quakerism.  In the 1820s, Quakerism in America split into two opposing groups: the Orthodox and Hicksites. Followers of the charismatic Elias Hicks wanted Spirit and the Inward Light to be the ultimate authority, while Orthodox Friends felt that the Bible and traditional Christian beliefs should be authoritative. Over the next century, Quakerism in America split into multiple groups, each with boundaries based on more or less clearly defined beliefs and practices.

These splits were about setting limits to Quakerism. Some felt that if you didn’t profess certain beliefs, you weren’t a real Quaker. Others felt if you engaged in certain practices, such as hiring a pastor, you weren’t a real Quaker. Defining what it means to be a “real Quaker” led to painful divisions that persist to this day.

At some point, Friends grew weary of this game. They recognized that real differences exist among Friends—different spiritual needs, different understanding of Quaker faith and practice—but we could “still be friends” and we need to work together. In 1917, feeling the urgent need to affirm the Peace Testimony in the midst of a terrible world war, London Yearly Meeting invited Friends from throughout the world and across the various branches of the Religious Society to come together. An All Friends’ Conference took place in August 1920, hosted by London (now Britain) Yearly Meeting. This was the beginning of efforts to heal the divisions among Friends.  In 1937 Rufus Jones help start an organization called Friends World Committee for Consultation to facilitate ongoing dialogue among Friends. This organization has helped many (including myself) to have a deeper and broader understanding of Quakerism.

When I first became a Quaker thirty years ago, I had a pretty clear idea of what Quakerism was, based on my experiences in unprogrammed meetings and reading Howard Brinton’s Friends for 300 Years.  Later, when I came to California and attended Whittier Friends Church, I saw that some Quakers had paid pastors and an order of worship similar to those of other Protestant churches; and my sense of what it meant to be a Quaker broadened. As I studied Quaker history and moved more widely in Quaker circles, I had to readjust my thinking about what “real Quakerism” means.

My leading as a Quaker has been to practice a ministry of reconciliation. In the 1980s I reached out to Russians and after 9/11 I reached out to Muslims. But something was missing in my reconciliation work. I was on friendly terms with those of other faiths, but I had little or no connection with Evangelical Friends. Something felt wrong with this picture!

This need to reach out to Evangelicals led me to become involved with FWCC, and perhaps also to marry my wife Jill, who is an Evangelical Christian. Over the past five years I have attended numerous gatherings sponsored by FWCC, including the World Conference of Friends in Kenya (2012), the Section of the Americas gathering in Mexico City (2015), and the World Plenary in Peru (2016). I have also attended Section meetings in Philadelphia, Indiana and California. Through these gatherings I have come to appreciate the beautiful and sometimes perplexing diversity of Friends. Jill has accompanied me to gatherings in Latin America and has helped me to deepen my friendships with Evangelical Friends.

Experiencing the diversity of Quakers has led me to wrestle with the question: What do Quakers have in common? I have come to accept as a fact that Quakerism arose as a Christian movement, and that Christianity is still an essential part of Quakerism’s DNA. Even in unprogrammed meetings where many are non-theists, humanists, or universalists, our core Quaker practices and beliefs derive from profoundly Christian roots.  World-wide, the vast majority of Quakers are not only Christians, but Evangelicals. But because Quakerism has no required dogmas, there is room for spiritual seekers and practitioners who are non-Christian, or even non-theist. This, too, has a biblical foundation. The Gospel of John affirms that “The Light that shines in everyone was coming into the world…..”  Quakers have interpreted this passage to mean that everyone has access to the Inward Light, whether they call it the light of Christ, the light of the Buddha, or simply the light of conscience. This universal Light shines in us all and can lead us to unity.

Two distinctive Testimonies unite us. First and foremost is the Peace Testimony. This is what brought together the first World Conference of Friends in 1920, and it is still a core part of our Quaker identity world-wide.

The second Testimony that unites us is Sustainability. This is a more recent Testimony, but it is implicit in our Testimonies on simplicity and community, as Doug Gwyn makes clear in his recent book A Sustainable Life: Quaker Faith and Practice in the Renewal of Creation (2014).

During recent FWCC gatherings, Friends have come to unity on minutes relating to the sustainability. During the 2012 Friends World Conference in Kabarak, Kenya, FWCC produced a powerful statement calling for "peace and eco-justice." This statement emerged from a deeply felt sense that Spirit is calling us to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis. "We must change, we must become careful stewards of all life," insists this statement. It evokes biblical language as well as Quaker tradition to remind us "we are called to be patterns and examples of peace and eco-justice, as difficult and decisive as the 18th and 19th century drive to abolish slavery." Powerful as this call is, it lacks specific advice on how Friends can become the change we so urgently need.

Since the 2012 consultation, there has been a growing sense that FWCC needs to offer concrete recommendations on what Friends can do to make a difference. During our 2016 gathering in the Sacred Valley of Peru, the spiritual heart of the Inca civilization, we became aware that local rivers are polluted, insecticides and pesticides are poisoning the farmland, and indigenous people are protesting the mining that is desecrating their sacred mountains.

Feeling deep pain in the midst of a breathtakingly beautiful Andean landscape, we wrote: "Our hearts are crying out for our beloved mother Earth, who is sick and in need of our care."

This pain was felt by the people of Israel when they failed to follow divine mandates, including the Sabbath; they lost their land and wept bitterly over this loss in the “Book of Lamentations.” Paul describes the pain felt by whole creation because it has been held in bondage to “corruption” and is groaning, like a woman in childbirth, “awaiting with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (this passage from Roman 8:19 was the theme of our conference). 

Feeling the pain and the eager longing of creation for restoration can lead us to take action to heal the earth. As a starting point, we came up with 27 specific actions that individuals, monthly meetings and yearly meetings can take to foster sustainability. They range from "grow your own food and plant trees" to "support Quakers in politics and international work." Hopefully, we will also support and partner with non-Quakers who are doing important environmental work!

During this World Plenary of Friends, we acknowledged our diversity of worship styles, cultures and theological understanding of Quakerism, seeing them not as limitations, but as opportunities for spiritual growth. We also found unity in the Spirit that brought us together for a purpose greater than any of us could imagine.  I’d like to close this reflection with words from the 2016 Plenary Epistle that sums up the spiritual heart of our work:

“We are one. We are one in the spirit of God which does not wash away or hide our differences, but allows us to celebrate them and enables us to move beyond the spiritual boundaries that may separate us. We are able to do this by coming together in worship where, while its form may be unfamiliar, God was present throughout. Through listening deeply and tenderly to each other and to God we reached a place where we can hear and sense where the words come from even when we may not understand the tongue they are spoken in….”

“In making the choice to come together and be willing to share deeply, pray boldly, and listen lovingly together, we seek to move beyond our differences, see beyond our labels and find ways to connect with each other ….”

In coming together, and following the leadings of the Spirit, I feel we truly became Friends. I hope others will join in FWCC’s ongoing work of reconciliation.

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What I love about Quakers: a poem by Stan Searl

This past weekend I gave a presentation about the Quaker World Plenary in Peru at Santa Monica Meeting, which I joined in 1989 when I first arrived in California from Philadelphia. Much water has flowed under many bridges (including some that have burned down!) since my arrival in the golden state twenty six years ago. Over the years I have come to love Santa Monica Meeting, and have felt such love and support from it, that during meeting for worship I was moved to give a message about love, based on 1 Corinthians 13:

Though I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, but have not love, my words are as sounding brass and crashing cymbals. If I have prophetic powers, and can fathom all mysteries and knowledge, and have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I gain nothing. If I give all I have to the poor, and sacrifice my body to be burned, but have not love, I am nothing.... Love never fails.... Three things will last forever--faith, hope and love--but the greatest of these is love.

I was led to speak about how important this passage has become for me, and how the core of all authentic religion is love. God is love, and we are made in God's image, so we are created to love and be loved.  I also quoted the beautiful message by Sarah Rose Lightener, a young Friend who used to be in my Quaker youth group and has grown up into a radiant young woman with an authentically Quaker heart: 

"Each of us is lovable, each of us is worthy of love, and each of us is capable of love..."

I was led to share this message because I always feel the powerful presence of love when I come to Santa Monica Meeting--it's truly a love feast for me. To be honest, I have also experienced some challenging moments in this Meeting, such as the time when the USA invaded Iraq and I spoke out passionately against the war and some Friends cheered me on, and others felt I was a "knee-jerk liberal." But that's par for the course if you're a Quaker peace activist. What really matters is the love and support I received when I needed it most. When my wife Kathleen of blessed memory and I went on our cancer journey,  and needed the support of Meeting, Santa Monica Friends immediately offered their homes for us to stay in (since we had just sold our home when we got the diagnosis). Friends also formed a support group, prayed for us, and gave us all the help we requested and needed during this difficult ten-month journey that ended with my wife's death. I should say that Kathleen's physical life ended, but love never ends. I'll say more about this in a subsequent blog entry.

During my talk this Sunday, when I spoke the trip that my current wife Jill and I took to Quaker gathering in Peru and how we are trying to live the Sustainability Testimony, I felt utterly free to share from my heart because I knew I was among Friends who care deeply.The spirit of love inspired me to be light-hearted and passionate and I had a blast. And my words moved my dear friend Stan Searl to write one of his inspired poems.

I've known Stan for over twenty years and he is one of the best Friends I know. A former clerk of Santa Monica Meeting, he is a retired academic and scholar who has the heart of a mystic and poet. Now that he is retired, he has gotten in touch with the prophetic fire that has always been bubbling up in his soul. He has written a couple of volumes of poetry--one called The Lady with Dirty Feet (about his Vermont upbringing, and the other called Quaker Poems; The Heart Opened. He loves to write what are called "occasional poems," poems inspired by some passing incident or event, like a wedding or a funeral, or in this case, a presentation by a visiting Quaker.

I love how this poem captures the green essence of my Greek Quaker soul, the part that experiences the Divine in every part of nature, from the lowly earth worm to the lofty Milky Way, in every blade of grass, and in every living creature, from the poet to the street person.

Thanks, Stan, for letting the spirit move you to write from your beautiful heart and soul!

Dance Piece

Stanford J. Searl, Jr.

“Everyone neath their

vine and fig tree

Shall live in peace

            and unafraid” (found on Anthony Manousos’s blog)

I imagined this Pasadena man underneath an apricot tree’s foliage,

his head and part of the face wrapped around with grape vines,

the tendrils become a vegetative mask.

I watched more leaves and stems

twist around his neck and up to the head

as he beckoned to follow him into the back garden,

walking next to persimmons, oranges, raspberries

to celebrate Pasadena’s mode of eco-friendly plantings

to twist and turn through vegetables

among the raised beds of heirloom tomatoes, zucchini blossoms falling over the path.

He handed over two speckled eggs,

talking and demonstrating

about net-zero renewalable energy approaches

how they used grey water, had installed solar panels,

removed the grass (and got paid for it),

now had energy efficient toilets as well.

In my mind, his skin had started to take on a greenish tinge

probably because of the brittle, thick greenness of California laurel,

now twining around the top of his skull.

I noticed a skip in his steps,

hopping along the back gardens

Pan-like, grinning out of the leaf-mask,

improvising vigorous two-steps underneath the fig trees.

About the author: Stanford J. Searl, Jr. lives in Culver City, California and for twenty-five years taught as a Core Faculty member in a person-centered, interdisciplinary doctoral program for Adult Learners at Union Institute & University. He's married to Rebecca Maris Warren of Whittier, California, and taught as an English Instructor for the Weekend College Program (Instructional Television) in the Los Angeles Community College system.

Raised from birth by his father's parents, S. Clyde and Daisy Godfrey Searl at 100 Main Street, Ludlow, Vermont, Searl graduated from Ludlow's Black River High School in 1961 and has a Ph.D. in English from Syracuse University. He has published two books about Quaker silent worship, including Voices from the Silence and The Meanings of Silence in Quaker Worship. He co-edited a book that presented formerly unpublished essays by the intellectual historian, Perry Miller, entitled The Responsibility of Mind in a Civilization of Machines. He published Quaker Poems: The Heart Opened in 2014.

Still in this day and age, Quakerism remains a frequently misunderstood religion, not for the complexity of its tenets, but for the difficulty of expressing its dimensions and depth in ordinary speech and language. Because the spiritual journey of the Quaker is primarily conducted inwardly through gatherings held in silence, words rarely do the experience justice and leave more questions asked than answered.

But through poetry, longtime practicing Quaker Stanford J. Searl Jr. has found a vehicle to express the inexpressible and bring his inner journey outward to break the silent surface with beautiful, heartfelt words that celebrate the vital undercurrents of his faith.

A collection of fifty poems that vibrantly depict Quaker life, Quaker Poems: The Heart Openedexplores the transformative power of silence and the principles of love, compassion, and peace that are the lifeblood of Quaker spirituality and practice.

With sections devoted to Quaker worship; Quaker history; Quaker activism and outreach; and Quaker values, people, and themes, the collection provides invaluable insight into the aspects of Quakerism that may confound those of other faiths, and it gives Quakers a soulful and accurate account of spirituality to which they can relate.

http://www.amazon.com/Quaker-Poems-Stanford-Searl-Jr/dp/1494489171

See also his book of Vermont poems

Lady with Dirty Feet: Vermont Poems

Save the planet and save money: some recommendations for going green affordably

I am pleased that Pasadena has decided to become a Green City and has an Environmental Advistory Commission. I'd like to suggest some models that could help our city (and others like us) to reach this goal. I'd also like to offer some policy and lifestyle options that could move us in the right direction. 

Jill and I are both excited about Kaupuni Village in Hawaii because it is the first net-zero energy affordable housing community in the state. "Net zero" means it produces as much energy as it consumes. This is significant because Hawaii has been importing 95% of its energy, and that's just not sustainable. Hawaii can no longer afford to be so utterly dependent on fossil fuel, so it is examining otheer alternatives. Kaupuni Village is a model for what Hawaii's future, and our future, could look like. Because of HUD requirements, affordable housing is some of the greenest housing in the USA. Let's make sure that all new construction has solar and can recycle water for landscaping. And let's make sure that schools and government buildings are "net zero." This is not only possible, but makes economic sense, as President Obama has argued very persuasively. See https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/25/remarks-president-national-clean-energy-summit

The state of California is committed to producing 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, and to reducing significantly its water consumption. Since Jill and I have reduced our electric bill by 90% and our water bill by 50%, we know this is doable and not outrageously expensive. Here are some tips on how we can  live more sustainably and affordably as a city and as individuals. I'm sharing this information with members of our City Council and our Environmental Advisory Board so we can move forward on our plan to be a Green City. Please share this info with your neighbors, friends and elected officials.

1) Take advantage of  AB 693, which creates a $100-million program for financial incentives to install solar panels at affordable apartment buildings. By providing solar panels, you can reduce operating costs and make rents more affordable. See https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB693

2) Let low income home owners know about programs like GRID that provide low or no cost solar panels, http://gridalternatives.org/regions/gla/learn/pasadena-partnership 

3) Let residents know about rebates for energy efficiency. Pasadena offers a ton of rebates to those who switch to energy efficient toilets, etc.  http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/waterandpower/savemoney/

4) Let people know about the HERO program, which provides loans for energy efficient improvements (like solar) and  allows borrowers to pay back their loans via their tax assessment. When you sell your property, the buyer repays the remainder of the loan (although he may choose to require you to pay). HERO also offers advice so you can decide what energy improvements are a good investment.  This could be a significant financial boon for folks in our district. For example, I called HERO and asked them how much it would cost me per year if I took out a loan to pay for my solar panels, grey water, and turf removal (which cost a total of $18,000). I was told that the cost of the loan was around $1600 per year. But my annual savings in electrical, gardening and water bills is over $2000 and will go up around 4% annually over the next few years. So from the very first year I would have saved money if I had taken out a loan to go green. People need to know this kind of information.  See https://www.heroprogram.com/

5) Companies like SOLAR CITY install solar panels with no upfront costs. Purchasers receive a small reduction in their energy bills and Solar City uses the savings to pay for the panels and installation. This makes solar affordable for everyone who qualifies, i.e. ithose  paying more than $100  a month in electrical bills and roofs with sufficient exposure to sunlight. 

6) Save money on green cleaning products. When we installed our gray water system, we had to stop using toxic cleaning products and use instead the cleaners our grand parents used--vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, pure Castille soap. We ended up saving money as well as saving the environment. See http://laquaker.blogspot.com/2015/05/earth-friendly-gray-water-cleaning.html

7) Encourage residents to plant fruit trees and vegetables. A great way to save money and save the planet. You can save hundreds of dollars a year by planting an edible garden instead of water-wasting lawn. It also helps build community since gardeners tend to share their harvest with friends and neighbors.

8) Incentivize going green by giving out awards. Claremont gives a yard sign called CHERP to everyone who makes a significant commitment to energy efficiency, i.e. installs solar panels, etc. See http://claremontenergychallenge.net/

9 Follow the example of the CHERP program in Claremont and create a city program that helps home owners to go green. See http://www.cherp.net/homeowner-participation-agreement

Why am I a Quaker?

I have been meditating on conflict, both inner an outer, in the context of being a Quaker since a dear

Friend of mine visited this week and was deeply concerned about the state of our Meeting. She was disturbed that we are not living up to our Quaker ideals because we have having conflicts in our Meeting.

"How can we talk about making peace in the world," she said, "when we are not experiencing peace in our Meeting? How can we talk about reconciliation when we are not really being friendly to one another?"

These are excellent questions. We Quakers have been struggling with them for, well, at least 350 years. Being a "Peace Church" doesn't mean we have  always been peaceful or loving. Just like the rest of the human race, Quakers have conflicts and issues. When we are at our best, we struggle to resolve these conflicts as lovingly as possible.  Try as we might, we don't always succeed, however. But in my view,  it isn't our success, but our faithfulness, that matters.

Let me explain what I mean with examples from our California Quaker history. Unprogrammed Friends in California arose because of deep conflicts within the Society of Friends. Orange Grove Meeting in Pasadena was founded by a branch of Quakers known as Hicksites, named after Elias Hicks (1748-1830), a charismatic Quaker minister from Long Island. During the 1820s,  because of theological and sociological differences, Quakers split into two branches, the Orthodox and Hicksite (followers of Elias Hicks). This separation was very painful and lasted until 1953, when these two branches finally reunited, thanks to intensive reconciliation work over many years by many Friends, including my mentor Howard Brinton. Conflict is not something new to American Friends. It is part of our history and of our DNA.

The second conflict occurred in the late 19th century with the rise of evangelical revivalism. This movement spread like wild fire throughout the West and profoundly influenced Western Quakers. Iowa Yearly Meeting split over this movement, causing much pain to traditional Friends like Joel and Hannah Bean. They were both clerks of Iowa YM but because of the bitterness of the conflict, they felt they needed to move to San Jose, CA, where they started their own unprogrammed Meeting. However, the newly Evangelicalized Iowa YM refused to recognize the legitimacy of their monthly meeting and even disowned them from membership in the Religious Society of Friends. Because Joel and Hannah were internationally known and respected, this became a huge "issue." One of the goals of FWCC (the organization to which I belong) is to help heal some of the divisions between Evangelical and unprogrammed Quakers.

In comparison to these conflicts, and to what is happening today in Indiana, where the Yearly Meeting split over the issue of homosexuality, what is happening in my Meeting seems like a tempest in a teapot. I am confident that our Meeting will grow both spiritually and psychologically to the extent that we face our conflicts honestly and lovingly. We can, and I'm sure we will, do this together.

What I want to share with you today is why I am a Quaker and why facing conflict is part of being a "Peace Church." I have taken this title from an essay called "Why I am a Friend,"  written by Joel Bean in 1894. At this time, Bean had been disowned from the Society of Friends but nonetheless was worshiping with Friend in San Jose and sowing the seeds for what eventually became Pacific Yearly Meeting. A national Quaker magazine called "The Friends Review" sponsored an essay contest on the topic "Why I am a Friend," in which the contributions of Friends were judged anonymously. Ironically, Joel Bean's essay won the first prize.See http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/jbwhy.htm

I say "ironically" because Bean's recorded minister status and membership status had been taken away by Iowa Yearly Meeting. Even though he was born to a Quaker family and devoted his life to the Society of Friends,  he  was not officially a Quaker  when he wrote this essay (i.e. he did not belong to an officially recognized Quaker meeting). But he was Friend in deed and in his heart. And that's what matters.

That's what matters to me, in any case. Thirty four years ago, I was led to my first Quaker meeting in Princeton, NJ. It was there that I found my spiritual home and joined the Religious Society of Friends. I am grateful beyond words that God led me to this Meeting and to the RSOF. But my life as a Friend has not always been easy.  I have faced many conflicts and challenges, though none as severe as the ones faced by Hicks and the Beans. I thank God for these challenges because they have helped me to grow and mature spiritually and emotionally.

In my next blog entry I will say more about why I am a Quaker. But for now, I'd like to leave you with this question.

Why are you a Quaker? Or a Christian? Or whatever faith you ascribe to? What challenges have you faced as you have tried to be faithful to your calling? How have conflicts and challenges helped you to grow and mature? If so, what have you learned?

National Days of Prayer, a Political Perspective

I  have attended the Mayor's prayer breakfast in Pasadena for the last couple of years with Jill and have found it a great way to connect with the community and to be inspired by the remarkable work being done by volunteer organizations like Friends In Deed. This year was special because Terry Tornek is the first Jewish mayor of our city and Rabbi Marvin Gross, the director of Union Station, was key note speaker. I enjoyed having a Jewish perspective on volunteer service. (Among other things, he noted that there are over 1000 nonprofits in Pasadena!) I also was moved by the beautiful prayer of Reverend Sandy Olewine, a dear Methodist friend who served for many years in Bethlehem and now pastors a church in Pasadena.

However, the skeptical side of me began to wonder about the political context for such public displays of prayer. Jesus warned us not to pray ostentatiously in public. All too often public prayers can be occasions for hypocrisy, the sin that Jesus seemed to despise the most. 

Nonetheless, I see value in coming together publicly to pray. These events help us to affirm our common values and hopes, and that can be a very good thing. 

But as I did some quick research via wiki, I was also struck by how overtly political such public occasions of prayer can be, and that's not always a good thing. In the Colonial period, national prayer days were occasions to protest what was seen as tyrannical government:

Friction in 1768–1776 between the American colonists and England spurred some American cities and colonies to proclaim days of prayer. For instance, Boston declared a day of fasting and prayer in September 1768, as a protest against a British plan to station troops in the city. The Colony of Virginia's House of Burgesses established a day of fasting and prayer to take place on Wednesday, June 1, 1774, to protest the Boston Port Act, such that the people of Virginia would assemble for prayer led by clergymen.^[7] Thomas Jefferson wrote that "the effect of the day through the whole colony was like a shock of electricity," moving the Virginians to choose delegates to establish self-rule.^[8] 

I have no objection to prayer as a form of nonviolent protest, but public prayer was also used to unite the nation around wars.

 In his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, General George Washington acknowledged a day of "fasting, humiliation and prayer" proclaimed by the Continental Congress to be held on Thursday, May 6, 1779. To enable his soldiers to observe the day, Washington ordered a one-day cessation of recreation and "unnecessary labor".^[12] In March 1780, Congress announced a day of "fasting, humiliation and prayer" to be held on Wednesday, April 26, 1780.^[13]The practice of calling for national days of fasting and prayer was abandoned from 1784 until 1789, even though thanksgiving days were observed each fall.^[14] On October 3, 1789, President Washington called for a national day of prayer and thanksgiving to be observed on Thursday, November 26, 1789; this was an extension of the tradition of thanksgiving which was already customary in New England.^[15][16] President Adams continued the practice of proclaiming national days of prayer in the spring and fall,^[17] but President Jefferson did not, as he considered prayer to be a matter for personal rather than state involvement.^[18][19]After James Madison, none of the next eleven presidents issued prayer proclamations. ^[20] Thus, there was a period of 47 years, from 1815 to 1862, with no presidential prayer proclamations. ^[21]

It wasn't until the bloody Civil War that a National Day of Prayer was reinstated by President Lincoln who no doubt hoped that prayer would help unite the nation--a purpose that was clearly political, and would have been seen as such, especially by the Confederacy.

The current National Day of Prayer was instituted in 1952, during the Korean War, to emphasize that the United States was united as a Christian, or at least Godly nation (as opposed to the godless Communists who were our enemies). During the Cold War and the McCarthy era, public displays of prayer was seen as a way to unite Americans "at this hour of peril" (i.e. the war in Korea),  which is why our leaders were so eager to call for a National Day of Prayer. 

 In January–February 1952 during the Korean War, the desirability of a united national prayer was stated by Reverend Billy Graham, who said, "What a thrilling, glorious thing it would be to see the leaders of our country today kneeling before Almighty God in prayer. What a thrill would sweep this country. What renewed hope and courage would grip the Americans at this hour of peril." Representative Percy Priest from Tennessee observed that Graham had issued a challenge for a national day of prayer.^[22] Members of the House and Senate introduced a joint resolution for an annual National Day of Prayer, "on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals."^[23] On April 17, 1952, President Harry S. Truman signed a bill proclaiming a National Day of Prayer must be declared by each subsequent president at an appropriate date of his choice.^[15]

As a Quaker, and as a Christian committed to peacemaking, I can't help feeling uncomfortable that National Days of Prayer are so often associated with war. For example, our "war president," George W. Bush, not only issued an announcements about National Days of Prayer, he also held prayer events during each year of his presidency. This is one of the reasons that Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP) adopted the slogan: "Religious communities must stop blessing war and violence."

Despite this checkered history, I feel comfortable with local prayer breakfasts like the one we have in Pasadena. I felt that it celebrates not war, but shalom --an evocative Hebrew word with a rich range of meanings: peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, health, and tranquility. In the Bible "shalom" is usually linked with justice, as in Psalm 85: 10:

"Love and faithfulness meet together; justice and peace kiss each other."

In this broken, war-torn war, we need times of public prayer and reflection when we can meet together to celebrate common values that can help us to create the kind of community we all yearn for, a community based on shalom and justice.